Identifying Teaching Style: The Case of Saudi College English Language and Literature Teachers

Aisha M Alhussain

doi:10.5539/elt.v5n8p122

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first objective is to give an account of why I set out to study teaching styles, how I carried out and analyzed a questionnaire survey, what results I got, and what the implications of these results are. The intent is to provide teachers with enough information to help them think about how these findings play out in their own classrooms, thus putting them on track to adapt their teaching style to their students' learning style. The second objective is to see if there is any statistically significant correlation between teaching styles and a number of factors, such as age, years of experience, specialty, and student level. Data analysis showed that literature teachers preferred the all-round flexible style, the mixed style, and the official curriculum and big conference styles successively, whereas linguistics teachers preferred the mixed style, the all-round flexible and straight facts styles, and the student-centered and big conference styles consecutively. No statistically significant correlation was found between teaching styles and age, years of experience, and specialty variables. Whereas statistically significant differences were found between level three and the official curriculum teaching style, and between level four and the student-centered teaching style (p< 0.05).

Highlights

Teaching style can be defined as comprising the roles a teacher plays in the classroom (Grasha, 1997)
One important theory in the Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) program is that of teacher expertise: domains that develop through teaching practice (Walqui, 2010)
To build their expertise so as to effectively offer students quality learning and cater to the increasing diversity of student learning needs, English language teachers need to be aware of their teaching styles (Walqui, 2010; Kulinna & Cothran, 2003)

Summary

Introduction

Teaching style can be defined as comprising the roles a teacher plays in the classroom (Grasha, 1997). Others take a learner-centered approach, viewing their role as more of a vacilitator of student learning. One important theory in the Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) program is that of teacher expertise: domains that develop through teaching practice (Walqui, 2010). To build their expertise so as to effectively offer students quality learning and cater to the increasing diversity of student learning needs, English language teachers need to be aware of their teaching styles (Walqui, 2010; Kulinna & Cothran, 2003)

Objectives

Methods

Results